Bookmark this tweet. It's not "The Guardian" that is worried about the dangers of not having full checks on EU food imports after #Brexit, it's the flipping Food Standards Agency...and the British Veterinary Association, the National Pig Association, the National Farmers' Union/1
The point here is that professional folk advising the government are worried...as I reported last month the FSA has already warned pig industry of 'white vans' of illegal pig meat entering from Romania, with risk of African Swine Fever/2
If you advertise the fact that you're leaving the front door open, don't be suprised if a crook walks through it.
As Zoe Davies of Nat Pig Assoc @Mrs_Pig says, “We know that this is an accident waiting to happen, because it’s an accident that has already happened before" /3
@Mrs_Pig What about the vets? Well, BVA @BritishVets vice president James Russell @uttoxeterjames is "deeply concerned" about Rees-Mogg's quips about fish-fingers posing no dangers...which totally misses the point. /4
@Mrs_Pig@BritishVets@uttoxeterjames And Minette Batters, @Minette_Batters the NFU boss called the borders decision “astounding” and “unacceptable”, adding checks were “absolutely crucial to the nation’s biosecurity, animal health and food safety”. /5
@Mrs_Pig@BritishVets@uttoxeterjames@Minette_Batters Now the Government says that it will save consumers £1bn by reducing checks, and that its building a whizzy new digital border with fewer checks for 2024/25...but that's a lot of expertise for jolly japes Jacob to be scoffing at as he takes a calculated risk on safety/6
@Mrs_Pig@BritishVets@uttoxeterjames@Minette_Batters Because while the FSA says there is no evidence that standards of food imports had fallen, its chair Professor Susan Jebb said risks of a safety incident were rising...to quote her in full.../7
@Mrs_Pig@BritishVets@uttoxeterjames@Minette_Batters Jebb: “The longer the UK operates without assurance that products from the EU meet our high food and feed safety standards, the less confident we can be that we can effectively identify potential safety incidents.”
I'll just leave it there. 8/ENDS
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Roll up, roll up #Brexit faithful....@Jacob_Rees_Mogg wants you to say which bits of 'retained EU law' you don't like ... you can look them all up here. Good luck. Bag of smarties for the winner. No seriously.../1
@Jacob_Rees_Mogg I am being serious. He really does...here is his statement to the House of Commons today...he wants the public to "join us on this journey" and deliver a "crucial boost" to productivity /2 ft.com/content/ba5b39…
@Jacob_Rees_Mogg It's genuinely hard to know where to start here....do we really think the public are going to trawl this website (pretty gritty stuff)...and do we think repealing bits and bobs of EU law will lead to a "productivity boost"...economists don't. /3
🚨🧨🧨🧨🧨🧨NEW: leaked section of Northern Ireland #Brexit bill that I've seen hand ministers massive powers to 'switch off' the Protocol...only 3 articles of the NI Protocol are specifically protected. My latest via @FT w @GeorgeWParker@jude_webber /1 ft.com/content/2286f0…
@FT@GeorgeWParker@jude_webber This legislation is far broader in scope that the Internal Market Bill 2020 that the government admitted breached international law in a "limited and specific way"...section 15 of this bill makes clear how broad the powers are.../2
@FT@GeorgeWParker@jude_webber Section 15 lists nine very broad criteria for using the powers for switching off parts of the Protocol...
- “safeguarding economic stability”
- and the “safetguarding territorial or constitutional integrity of the United Kingdom” /3
🧨🧨 NEW. Leaked Treasury memo concedes Boris Johnson’s plan to cut civil service risks ‘adverse impacts’ on frontline services - my latest with @eirnolsoe @FT /1 on.ft.com/3xEpuu0
So @BorisJohnson said this week the decision to “prune back” Whitehall departments could be achieved “without harming the public services they deliver” — but no-one agrees with that. Not insiders or experts. /2
Because cutting one fifth of Civil Servants in three years when HALF deliver frontline services (prison officers, probation, court staff, govt agencies like DVLA etc) can’t be done without impact /3
The @DUPonline now look unlikely to be persuaded into power by tabling the NI Protocol-busting legislation, Brandon Lewis has warned PM...which leaves Govt in a predicament/1
@duponline@GeorgeWParker@clivecookson Per Whitehall insiders, Brandon Lewis initially promised Truss/Johnson at cab cmme that it WOULD do the trick -- justifying they unilateral law-breaking move -- but that has had to be revised. DUP say they feel "no pressure" to move until it's actually on the statute book. /2
@duponline@GeorgeWParker@clivecookson But @BorisJohnson is on the horns of a nasty dilemma, since he's promised this law-breaking bill to the ERG and the Frostian right and now feels he has to plough ahead with it -- even thought it won't by justified (as they'd hoped) by getting DUP back into executive/3
🚨🚨🇪🇺🇬🇧☘️🌲🐸🪺🦎🐦🌲🇬🇧🇪🇺🚨🚨
NEW: Amazingly broad range of conservation and marine habitat industry user-groups are expressing deep misgivings about George Eustice @DefraGovUK plans to reform/replace EU Habitats directives post #Brexit my @FT latest/1 ft.com/content/f688bd…
@DefraGovUK@FT These are plans to reform Habitats/Birds and other EU directives that were sucked into UK law at point of #Brexit but now, per UK Govt consultation, George Eustice wants to "simplify and streamline" /2
@DefraGovUK@FT Eustice has wanted to do this & promised to do this since the 2016 referendum campaign when he described them as "spirit crushing"...problem is, lots of biggest habitat-defender groups just don't agree with him or @DefraGovUK
plans /3
Worth reading @BorisJohnson oped…and then imagining if it had been written after 18 months of good-faith engagement — as NI business had done — rather than grandstanding and threats. There are still accessible solutions here…/1
In that more benign world, the EU could agree the implementation grace periods are permanent (No-one in Brussels seriously thinks they aren’t anyway.)
And that U.K. subsidy control regime allows re think on Art10/State Aid clause/2
The DUP cant, surely, afford politically to stay out of power sharing and risk a repeat election after 24 weeks, so a deal that bakes in grace periods with pragmatic facilitations is surely waiting to be taken/3